Sharing my Little World

Reviews

For as long as I can remember I have loved magical girl anime. It’s such an appealing genre; cute girls, magic, buttkicking, romance, friendship and awesome ladies. What more could you want?

Sailor Moon is probably the most iconic of the magical girl anime. It has a legacy of 20 years and it shows no sign of stopping, especially with the new series, Sailor Moon Crystal, that premiered this past weekend.

I used to watch Sailor Moon as a kid when it first aired on TV in the US. I don’t remember how much of it I actually watched (I could have been for only a short time since I remember not having many TV channels as a kid). Though I do remember being super excited when my friend let me borrow one of her Sailor Moon VHS’ in 5th grade and renting the Sailor Moon R and Super S movies many times. I might not have very vivid memories of it, but it’s there.

For the 20th Anniversary of this iconic series, creator Nakao Takeuchi has finally released her iron grip on the series. After a horrible english dubbed adaption, Takeuchi swore never to let the series be released in English again. Fortunately, she’s become a bit more accomidating recently. The series is being rereleased in the US and around the world in via the Internet. Currently the episodes are only in Japanese, but an English language dub is being released at a later date, and completely void of name changes, changes to sexuality and even gender. Plus the unreleased in the US 5th season Sailor Stars will finally be released in the US!

Tell me this isn’t a dream come true. But it gets better. So much better. A new Sailor Moon Series has been made, Sailor Moon Crystal. This is a remake of the original series, rather than a continuation. SMC will follow the original manga much more closely and much shorter. The best part? It’s being released on the internet with subtitles in tons of different languages!

As a biweekly series, the first episode has already aired. I couldn’t be happier with it honestly.

As far as content goes, pretty much every incarnation of Sailor Moon has the same first episode. That’s actually quite reassuring.Everything starts the same.

I’m just going to say it here: I love the art style. There are a few things I don’t like, such as Usagi’s eyes (they look a bit dead don’t they?), but overall it’s just amazing. It really gives off that romantic shojou feel. There are flower frames, light spheres and starry backgrounds. It’s everything I love about shojou manga in motion.

Usagi’s hair is one of my favorite parts. In the original anime Usagi’s twin tails are very rigid, but in Crystal, they flow freely in the wind and it’s beautiful. The whole show just has a very soft and floaty feel to it. It just makes me feel nice watching it.

The 3D animated transformation sequence will take some getting used to. I always feel like that kind of animation mixed with the 2D just feels a bit out of place. But it’s the transformation sequence, so we’ll be seeing it a million times, I’ll probably get used to it.

Also, can we talk about how awesome that theme song is? I’m a little sad that it’s not Moonlight Densetsu, but the new song is all about girl power, and sticking together. It’s just everything Sailor Moon stands for.

I’m so excited to see the rest of this series! My favorite Senshi is Sailor Venus, and even though there was a lot of Sailor V, it will be a while until Aino Minako shows up. I’m super sad that new episodes will only air biweekly!